G/WI, GCWI (G//WIKHWE, G//WI, G/WI, GCWI, G!WIKWE, G/WIKHWE, DCUI) (Botswana)
Index →Africa→ Botswana → G/wi
Featured: G/wi, Hambukushu, Kgalagari, Nharo, Dobe Ju/’Hoansi, (Ba)Katla / (Ba)kgatla,; also®Subiya, ®Tswana, ®Atonga
G/wi girls are married at age 7-9, boys at about 14-15 (Silberbauer, 1963[1]; Singer, 1978:p126-7[2]; Campbell, 1967:p42[3]). Coitus does not begin until the girl is 11 or 12, when her breasts begin to develop, i.e., prior to menarche. Prior to this time, a husband may, although rarely so, be sexually active with an unattached older woman. The Bushchildren play house (Silberbauer, 1965:p79)[4], though no sexual implications are indicated. From age 5 or 6 on, the girl is exposed to the conversation of adult women during food gathering, which is “far from inhibited”. Girls marry at age 7 to 9, to boys aged seven years more (p81), and without much of a ceremony. “Sexual intercourse commences only after the first couple of years of marriage, when the girl’s breasts begin to develop”; if she is slow to mature, “her husband rather coyly admits his impatience” (p83). There is no special recognition of defloration.
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Last revised: Sept 2004 |
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[1] Silberbauer, G. B. (1963) Marriage and the girl’s puberty ceremony of the G/wi Bushmen, Africa 33,1:12-23
[2] Singer, R. (1978) The biology of the San, in Tobias, Ph. V. & Biesele, M. (Eds.) The Bushmen: San Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa. Cape Town [etc.]: Human & Rousseau, p115-29
[3] Campbell, A. C. (1964) A few notes on the Gcwi Bushmen of the central Kalahari Desert Bechuanaland, NADA 9,1:39-47. Campbell notes that “puberty” in girls occurs at age 15 or 16, and that boys have intercourse “as soon as they reach the age of puberty” (ibid.).
[4] Silberbauer, G. B. (1965) Bushman Survey. Gaberones: Bechanaland Govt.